Secondary Glazing for Schools

Why classrooms suffer

Teaching depends on speech intelligibility, and traffic noise sits in the same frequency range as the human voice. In a classroom on a main road, teachers raise their voices, pupils at the back lose the thread, and windows stay shut in summer because opening them makes it worse. Old school buildings also have very large glazed areas relative to floor space, so whatever the window does, it does at scale.

Specification for a school

Laminated glass is the default because it holds together if struck, which suits ground floor and playground facing elevations. Robust ironmongery matters more than elegance, and restrictor stays are specified where required. Where a classroom relies on the window for ventilation, sliding or hinged units keep the airflow, and trickle ventilation is matched to what the original window provided.

• Laminated safety glass as standard
• Restrictor stays where required
• Robust commercial grade ironmongery
• Ventilation retained, never sealed dead

Heat loss in Victorian and mid century blocks

Single glazed steel or timber windows in a Victorian board school lose heat continuously and produce cold spots along the window wall. Adding Low E glass in a sealed secondary frame reduces that loss and removes the draught, and because nothing is done externally, listed and locally significant school buildings can be improved without touching the elevation.

Fire escape, safeguarding and compliance

Designated escape windows are identified at survey and fitted with openable units that release from inside without a key. Our fitters carry the checks and documentation schools require, and we work to the school's own signing in, supervision and safeguarding procedures. RAMS and insurance documentation are issued before work starts.

• Escape windows kept openable from inside
• DBS checked fitters where required
• RAMS and insurance issued in advance
• Work to the school's safeguarding policy

Fitting in holidays and phased over years

Almost every school project we do runs in half terms, Easter or the summer break. Because everything is templated at survey and made off site, a block can be completed quickly once the holiday starts. Where budget is annual rather than capital, we quote per opening and per block so the work can be phased across several years with an identical specification each time.

What it will not solve

Reverberation inside the classroom, corridor noise and noise through lightweight partitions are not window problems and secondary glazing will not change them. Where a school has had an acoustic survey, we will work to its recommendations for the glazing element and say plainly where other measures are needed.